I remember reading that you bought a set of 28 ga. 32″ barrels for your(a) Perazzi. Was it a 12 ga. frame? What were the barrels bored? Comments/observations. Several years ago I bought a 20 ga. UK Game gun built on the MX20 frame. It is a superb gun. I dearly love the 28 since I no longer am thrilled about being beaten to death by recoil and wanted your thoughts on these long Perazzi 28 barels.

Thanks. Shep

Dear Shep,

The Perazzi that I got from the now defunct Mr. Litt is an MX8/20 fitted with 31.5″ 28 gauge barrels. If you wish to duplicate it, you need only add similar barrels to your 20 gauge.

My barrels have fixed chokes of .016″ in each barrel. Perazzi bores chokes in .004″ increments. I’d felt that .016″ would be a good modified in the 28, but was wrong. They may measure modified, but they pattern full. If I were to do it again, I’d probably get a pair of .012″s for a little more mercy on the closer shots. Still, at 35 yards, (incoming dove distance) those chokes are miracles.

My trigger is removable with leaf springs, but is non selective. As I built the gun for dove, there really isn’t time to so all that selecting stuff. You just sort of jam the bullets in and let her rip. In driven situations I prefer paired chokes, rather than staggered ones. In sporting clays, paired fixed chokes take all the anguish out of shooting. There are no choices, so you don’t worry about it.

Every now and then I think about sending the barrels to Briley for flush screw chokes, but the gun shoots so well with what it has that I’m reluctant to tempt fate. By the way, barrel convergence is perfect- not always the case with double barrel guns no matter who the maker.

The fixed choke patterns are remarkably consistent and are among the best patterns I’ve ever gotten from a 28. It may have something to do with the fact that the chokes have almost half a foot of taper.

The rib I chose is a flat, tapered one with a single brass bead in front. I’ve never seen any reason to regret this choice and would do it again. You’d probably want your 28 bbls to have the same rib as your 20 bbls.

My 31.5″ 28 ga bbls are stamped with a weight of 1.490 kg. I think that this is about right for the gun, but if the barrels had been an ounce heavier, I wouldn’t have minded. The gun is definitely not whippy, but is very responsive. With those lazer chokes, it’s a real aimer, not a snap shooter. In return, it is an awesome gun at distance.

Perazzi makes screw choke barrels for the 28. I passed those by because Perazzi screw chokes do not have as good a reputation as their marvelous fixed chokes. On the plus side, their screw chokes do add a bit of tip weight to the barrels which will make the gun feel even more steady.

My total gun weighs 7.5# on the button, but it’s centrally balanced so it has a good bit of speed. I wouldn’t get the barrels any lighter, but not too much heavier either.

Now here’s the odd thing about the gun. I had the stock made exactly to my dimensions. That included a slight relaxing of the pistol grip, a length of 15-3/8 with 3″ pitch and zero cast, plus relatively high dimension because I felt a long barreled sub-gauge gun would be a very flat shooting gun. That turned out to be true.

These stock dimensions certainly shouldn’t suit everyone but everyone, and I mean everyone, who has shot that gun shoots it well. Some shoot it marvelously well. I could have sold it a number of times. In fact, most people shoot it better than I do because I tend to aim with it and that’s never a good thing. It’s easy to aim a gun like this because the barrels are so long and thin.

The only mechanical problems I’ve had with the gun have been in broken leaf spring and a broken ejector. The latter was expensive and inconvenient. Other than that, I’ve shot the gun about 14,000 rounds with no problems.

I have an acquaintance, who liked my gun so much that he had Litt get him a three gauge set on the MX8/20 frame with the same 31.5″ length barrels. He likes his gun as much as I like mine. His 28s are just an ounce heavier than mine.

Bottom line: definitely get a set of 28 bbls for your MX8/20 frame. You are going to love it. There is something magical about the 28 and Perazzi certainly does it right.